any experience with the craftsman # 22400 bandsaw?

[John A. Callaway]

I have been considering a bandsaw purchase the past few days. I originally was just going to get the little 10" rikon from highland.... and be done with it. Use it to cut a few curves, the occasional taper, and some step thickness changes in cabinet or table legs.....I am a mostly neander woodworker....well I started digging into the grizzly site and was looking at the polar bear g0555 ....its a step up in price and a lot more saw....but the more I thought about it....the more I think I may not use it for all its worth.... I rarely purchase a 12 inch wide board that would need resawing.... and at 499.00 delivered for the saw, plus the cost of a riser block .... I think it will be a bit more saw than what I would really need....So , I kept digging....and I think the craftsman 12 inch model may fit the bill....3/4 horse motor, seven inch resaw capacity, and right now showing on sale for about $ 365.00 .... which seems to be somewhat reasonable..... So those of you with craftsman saws.... the ones that are mirror clones to their rikon equivalent.... are they durable, can the blade tension up properly, are you happy with them? I have read that I need to change out all the bearings to ABEC 7 bearings....all the reviews say this is the only part they skimped on.....and of course a better blade .... I have a small shop.... a one car garage that I share storage space with other belongings that won't fit anywhere else.... and I want a small footprint.... good bang for the buck and easy to use and maintain....

[Michael Roland]

I had a 22401 and grew to dislike it the more I used it. As you mentioned, all the bearings had to be replaced. The trunion for adjusting the table angle was a pain making it difficult to return to a flat square surface after cutting an angle. On my 22401, the track assembly for raising and lowering the upper guide bearings was not installed correctly at the factory. Anytime I raised or lowered the guides I had to redo the bearing to blade alignments. While trying to learn to live with mine I would check out the 22401 at each Sears I would go to. Disregarding the bad job of in store assembly, there seemed to be a fair amount of variation in build quality. Maybe I just got a bad one.

I picked up my 22401 at a really cheap sale price and broke even when I sold it. I waited and waited until I found a Grizzly G0555X on Craigslist for $350.

[Paul Symchych]

For what sounds like intermittent rather casual use I would suggest looking at Craigslist for a used saw that you can try out in the seller's shop. If the owner has sorted out whatever problems a saw might have started with that will save you time and likely a lot of money. Safer than buying a new lower end machine and hoping there are no quality control problems out of the box. There are a lot of cities within easy driving of you so check around on CL. Bring some wood with you to try the saw out.

[scott spencer]

I've had a 22400 for 4 or 5 years now and have been happy with it overall. As you mentioned, I replaced the guide bearings with roller blade bearings ...either ABEC 5 or ABEC 7....it's a 10-15 minute $10 task. It's fairly heavy, has a decent size table, decent resaw capacity, the fence works ok, and it has reasonable power with a good blade. I don't think it'll compete well with the better 14" saws with 1hp motors, but it's served my purposes well for what I paid, which was considerably less than $365. Most of what I've read has been positive about these saws, but $365 is enough that the 14" Grizzly G0555 starts to have some appeal to me.

[Bruce Yasitis]

I bought one off of Craig's List two years ago for $170. I did not, yet, have to replace to replace the bearings, just the blade. I have used it on a semi-regular basis and am happy with it. This past week end my SIL and I did our first resawing with great success. Sawed a piece of red oak log, approx 6", and the 1/4 inch blade cut like butter. The only issues I have had (such as adjusting the bearings, the tension and for blade drift) were from my ignorance. After studying on how to do the adjusting, it was easy to do and the bandsaw runs quite well.

[Joey Chavez]

If you're absolutely postive you'll never need more capacity or heavy duty features for your future project interests then you shouldn't need anything more than that Craftsman. I was set on buying the same Grizzly Polar Bear model you looked at but I took a step back and really thought about what I wanted to do in the future and ended up spending a lot more money on a Laguna 14 SUV. The first time I used it I did something that the smaller Grizzly would have never been able to handle. I actually almost pulled the trigger on that same Craftsman bandsaw for my dad, but as I listened to him talk about his future plans it would have been a mistake. Grizzly makes some good equipment, the extra money, not to mention the quality, may serve you well in the future.

[John A. Callaway]

yeah.... I am still having a tough time with the decision. Tomorrow is the day when I can actually jump and make a decision and whip out the card and place the order.... My wife pointed out a good issue.... We are in a apartment, I use a rented garage in the complex, and We are hoping to move to a new city sometime next year... So I will have to move the machine, and hope that where ever we end up ( starting out ) that I will have room to set up shop, and she thinks I should wait on such a full size machine until I get settled into where ever we are going to try and replant some roots up north..... So I dont know...

[Dan Rude]

I have had this saw for the last 4 years now. Used it to cut a lot of laminate flooring for 3 bedrooms when I first bought it. I am running into the bearing issue, so I picked up the carter bearings for it. Mind you I have yet to install them since my shop is being pushed back in part of the basement, due to the basement family room. I am happy with the saw though it has done everything I have asked of it and with a good 1/2" blade I have been able to resaw a bit. Would I pull the trigger again, the answer is yes and the fact Sears let me pay on it for a year interest free. If you can afford it though go with the larger Rikon, I might do that to be able to resaw lager boards.

[Don Bullock]

I have a Craftsman 22401 14" bandsaw. Over all I'm very pleased with it, but I must admit that I am not one who uses it for what I'd call high end work. It's amazing how handy a band saw is in the workshop. I haven't even used mine enough for the bearings to freeze up. When they do I understand it's a very easy and cheap fix using skateboard bearings.

The biggest problem I have had with the saw was when the run capacitor fried. Finding the correct replacement proved to be very difficult. Sears wanted me to pay almost as much as the saw cost for a new motor with the capacitor attached. They would not sell the capacitor separately. I learned the hard way to check parts lists for tools when I buy them to see if I'm going to run into that kind of problem. I finally got my bandsaw running thanks to some great help from an electronics supplier that had the "correct" capacitor. My solution is documented here on SawMill Creek and on the Craftsman tools forum.

[John McClanahan]

I have one. I have had to replace the bearings too. Other than that, I think its a good saw for the money. Every time I look at the 14" Deltas, Ridgid and clones, Im glad for what I've got.

John